Giants to Play Vikings in Detroit After Metrodome Roof Caves In Under Snow

By Erik Matuszewski -
Dec 13, 2010

The New York Giants and Minnesota
Vikings will play tonight at Detroit’s Ford Field after
yesterday’s game was rescheduled and relocated because the roof
at the Metrodome in Minneapolis caved in under the weight of 17
inches (43 centimeters) of snow.

Kickoff for the National Football League game, which will
be televised on Fox in local markets, is 7:20 p.m. New York
time.

The Giants flew into Detroit from Kansas City, Missouri,
yesterday after their flight to Minneapolis was diverted by the
biggest snowstorm to hit the Twin Cities area since 1991. Giants
coach Tom Coughlin said last night that his team was in good
spirits even with the lengthy travel delays.

“While we waited (in Kansas City) we were entertained a
bit by our rookie vocalists,” Coughlin said during a media
conference call. “That always seems to stir them up. They’ve
handled it well.”

Detroit’s Ford Field is the closest indoor NFL stadium to
Minneapolis, about 689 miles (1,108 kilometers) from the
Metrodome. Giants President John Mara said the facility was the
“most logical” because it was reasonably close and News
Corp.’s Fox already had its television equipment at Ford Field
after broadcasting yesterday’s NFL game between the Detroit
Lions and Green Bay Packers.

Mara said while the University of Minnesota’s 50,805-seat
open-air stadium was considered -- being about 2 miles from the
Metrodome -- the NFL said it wouldn’t have been ready in time
after being shut down for the winter.

No Instant Replay

“There were a lot of other issues like the snow on the
field there, the college hash marks not the pro hash marks, and
they didn’t have instant replay capability,” Mara said. “They
didn’t have TV equipment out there. The commissioner ultimately
made the decision to play the game in Detroit, and we were fine
with that.”

Ticket holders for yesterday’s scheduled game in
Minneapolis will get seating along the 50-yard line at Ford
Field in addition to a refund, the Vikings said.

General admission will be free, with tickets available at
the Ford Field box office beginning at 8 a.m. today, the team
said.

“We’re going to work to make this as accommodating of a
game for both teams, but particularly the Vikings, since it is
their home game that is being lost,” Lions President Tom Lewand
said in a statement.

The Metrodome roof deflated under the weight of more than
10 inches of snow 48 days after first being inflated in October
1981. While the structure has had tears since then, the only
previous event to be postponed because of snow was a Major
League Baseball game between the Minnesota Twins and California
Angels in April 1983.

“We’ll get a little walk through or chair drill (this)
morning just to move around a little bit and get our minds back
into football,” Giants quarterback Eli Manning said. “In
essence we’ve been just sitting around since Saturday morning at
nine o’clock.”

Favre Injury

The delay gave Vikings quarterback Brett Favre another day
to recover from a shoulder injury that knocked him out of the
38-14 win against Buffalo Dec. 5.

Favre, who has made an NFL-record 297 straight starts, has
been listed as questionable on the team’s injury report.

For the Giants, it cost them a day of preparation for next
week’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

At 8-4, the Giants trail the Eagles by a half-game in the
National Football Conference’s East Division. Philadelphia
improved to 9-4 with last night’s 30-27 win in Dallas.

“Obviously we would have liked to have a full week but
what are you going to do? It could not have been avoided,” Mara
said. “Right now this game is the most important game so you
can’t worry about the Eagles just yet. You never like to play on
a short week, but you have to.”